Mud and Hills

The national cross country championships took place at Parliament Hill on Saturday 21st February on a course that beat even Benfleet for mud. Caroline Searle, Belinda Palmer-Barnes and Helene Tyler ran the women’s 8k event, ploughing through the mud to finish in 56:12, 1:01:41 and 1:01:58 respectively, despite the loss of the odd shoe. The men’s 12k event was run by Ben Ficken in 57:55, Paul Hollidge 1:04:13, Phil Presland 1:05:21 and Scott Young 1:13:56.

On the Sunday, Mark Crittendon took on the Dunton Test Track 10 miler, knocking 2 minutes and 51 seconds off his PB to finish in 1:31:49.

Gary Hill ran Hampton Court half marathon and also achieved a new PB by 6 minutes exactly in 1:52:50.

Last week’s Colchester Parkrun saw Chusa Bautista Fructuoso score a new PB in 24:28, edging ever closer to her silver club standard. Belinda Palmer-Barnes also PB’d in 28:08. Other runners there were Charlie Keitch (19:18), John Bush (28:09), Claire Groves (26:35) and Paul Hollidge (23:05).